Spiro Medical Secures $67 Million in Series A Financing

Spiro Medical Inc. is significantly more financially sound these days, having closed a $67 million Series A equity financing led by Andera Partners (Paris), Omega Funds (Geneva/Boston) and Sherpa Healthcare Partners (Cayman Islands). Other investors included HSG (Hong Kong), Supernova Invest (Paris), Northern Light Venture Capital (Menlo Park, Calif.) and Hero Inc. Ltd. U.K., which is part of the India-based conglomerate Hero Enterprise.

“I am delighted to welcome venture capital investors who understand the immense potential of this PNM technology. Once this novel approach comes to market, it promises to have a profound impact on patients suffering from asthma and other breathing related conditions,” Spiro Medical Board Chairman Raymond W. Cohen said.

Proceeds from the financing will be used to develop a purpose-built pulmonary neuromodulation system (PNM) and execute on the clinical work required for regulatory approval in the United States.

As part of this financing round, Spiro Medical welcomed Raphaël Wisniewski of Andera Partners, Claudio Nessi of Omega Funds, and Ouyang Xiangyu of Sherpa Healthcare to its Board of Directors.

“We are grateful to our Co-Founder Stephen Pyles, M.D., for his foresight and look forward to his future contributions,” Spiro Medical CEO Rinda Sama stated. “We believe this is a rather unique opportunity to be starting a project with issued patents and some human data which informs us about the potential for this exciting new clinical indication for neuromodulation. We are also highly confident that we can build a world-class system given our team’s experience and expertise in developing implantable neuromodulation systems.”

Asthma is a common chronic lung disease, affecting more than 28 million Americans and over 300 million people worldwide. Many clinical symptoms of asthma are related to the nervous system and can be at least partially attributed to altered activation or regulation of airway nerves. Associated symptoms such as wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and coughing, etc., are mediated in part, by targeting these neural reflex pathways.

Based in Irvine, Calif., Spiro Medical is a new company founded by Sama, Dr. Pyles, Kurt Gehlsen, M.D., Ph.D., and G. Jay Jiang, Ph.D., to develop a purpose-built pulmonary neuromodulation system to treat severe asthma.